The first consecrated women reflect on lessons learned in their 40-year journey of faith.

Some of the first consecrated members. Guadalupe Magaña (far left), Patricia Bannon (third from left), and Margarita Estrada (fifth from left).

By Melica Antonio

December 8th, 2009, marks the 40th anniversary of
the founding of women´s consecrated life in Regnum Christi.
On December 8, 1969, Margarita Estrada and the sisters Guadalupe
and Graciela Magaña consecrated their lives to Christ in Tlapa,
Mexico, while in Dublin, Ireland, Patricia Bannon made her spiritual
consecration. Patricia later made her formal consecration in August of
1970 in a house called “Voewood,” which served as the
first formation center for consecrated women.

Forty years later, Margarita,
Guadalupe, and Patricia share their memories with us.

A step
of faith

“I remember everything from that day,” Guadalupe comments about
the day of her consecration. “The people around me, the
dress I was wearing, my place in the chapel, the
nerves that were attacking me. I was looking forward to
a new adventure, without any desire to look back. I
felt mixed sentiments: joy of surrender, the pain of letting
go… A new door to a new horizon was being
opened to me; totally new, but totally sustained by Christ.”

Margarita
remembers “the simplicity of the moment, the interior joy I
felt, increased by the lack of an exterior celebration,” given
that the ceremony of consecration took place without guests or

Voewood, the first formation center for consecrated women in Dublin, Ireland.

fanfare. “Nothing could distract me from what was most important:
the offering my life to God for the salvation of
souls.”

“I remember putting my vocation into the hands of
Mary, asking her to take care of it and to
help me to live it in the best way possible,”
says Patricia. “That night, one of my companions made me
a carrot cake, and carrot cake has been one of
my favorite desserts ever since!”

Margarita and Guadalupe first heard
about consecrated life in the Movement from Fr Carlos Mora
LC (1929-2006), who stopped in their hometowns and visited their
families. Margarita felt attracted to the vocation because, “it fulfilled
all my aspirations: my desire to do good for others,
to be an apostle, to receive a solid formation. Fr
Mora explained consecrated life to me and warmly invited me
to respond freely. I think the vocation also attracted me
because of the type of character I have: I love
the adventure of starting something new, of taking on a
worthwhile challenge.”

“Lay consecrated life in the Movement was not
yet a reality when God called me to it,” says
Patricia Bannon. “It captivated me because I had to look
at it and accept it with faith, and that´s how
I´ve always tried to live it… Once I had had
a personal experience with Christ, once I had discovered that
he loved me and that I could talk to him
in every moment, I was conquered. Christ offered me a
personal and intimate relationship, and I have tried to be
faithful to him ever since. I think of so many
people who don´t know him, and I want them to
encounter him and experience my same joy.”

Perseverance

But one thing is
the excitement with which one initiates a new life; another

Margarita Estrada helping with a retreat for religious sisters.

thing is to persevere in it for forty years. Has
their concept of consecrated life matured with the passing of
time?

“Without a doubt,” says Guadalupe. “It´s been a constant
learning process, in spite of the fact that from the
beginning I understood clearly what the essence of consecrated life
was. A lot of external factors have been perfected through
the years. We learn to walk as we go walking.
And without the fidelity of God, where would I be?
My fidelity without his fidelity means nothing. I´m convinced he
will never be unfaithful to me, even if I stumble
and fall on the way.”

Margarita adds, “For me, to
live consecrated life is to belong more and more to
God each day, only to God and to see all
things through God. It´s to arrive to the point of
being able to say what Saint Therese of the Child
Jesus would say: I belong more to Him than to
myself.”

Rewards and lessons

In the Gospel of Matthew 19:29, Christ promises
a hundredfold reward to those who leave everything to follow
him. Have they also experienced this satisfaction while still on
the earth?

Guadalupe answers, “I have experienced God´s love in
a deep and intimate way; I feel an intense and
profound joy, even when the cross is present.” Margarita says,
“My reward is the joy of knowing and loving God,
of being able to surrender my life for the things
he loves; the Church and souls. My reward is the
joy of being able to love and to do good
to others.”

And what have they learned from forty years of
apostolic work, carried out in diverse cultural and social contexts
in several countries? Margarita is currently serving in Monterrey, Mexico,
as a territorial coordinator for Instituto DAR, an apostolate whose
mission is to strengthen, form, and renew the ideal of
consecrated life. The most beautiful lesson she has learned is:
“I am an instrument of God´s love,” nothing more and
nothing less.

Guadalupe, who works in Mexico City as a teacher
for several catechetical institutes, adds: “I consider that my place

Patricia Bannon: “God´s fidelity is now the sure anchor of my life. He is faithful; he does not change. His fidelity does not depend on mine, but sustains it."

in the Mystical Body is this: I´m simply a grain
of sand in the great work of the third degree
and the Regnum Christi Movement. This has been my conviction
since my days in Dublin.”

Live the joy of today

Patricia
is currently a professor and spiritual guide in the formation
center for consecrated women in Monterrey, Mexico, but spent many
years helping the Movement establish schools in Spain and Mexico.

“Some years ago, I was working as the dean of
studies in a girls’ school in Spain. I loved spending
time with the students, but obviously spent more time with
the older girls, the ones in junior high and high
school. ‘I have years ahead to spend with the younger
ones,’ I rationalized. But during Christmas break, one of our
first graders died in a car accident. As I contemplated
her little coffin during her funeral, I thought: ‘She´s already
with God.’ She was a soul who had passed through
my hands, and God had only given me four months
to help him shape her life.”

“From that moment on, I
realized that I could not control the future. I will
never know how much time God gives me for each
soul, nor how much time I will work in a
certain apostolate, nor how much time remains of my own
existence. I can only love in the present moment: I
have to help the souls of today, carry the cross
of today, live the joy of today. It was a
hard lesson, but I am grateful, because the memory of
this experience keeps me from falling into routine and mediocre
self-giving,” she said.

“God´s fidelity is now the sure anchor of
my life. He is faithful; he does not change. His
fidelity does not depend on mine, but sustains it. He
is the rock on which we build our life together
and write a story of love that will last for
all eternity.”